better
light a candle than curse the darkness

There
is no denial of the fact that the Indian Muslim Community is lagging
behind the rest of India in nearly all spheres of progress. This
warrants the need of an immediate redressal of the issue. The national
efforts in the form of affirmative actions like reservation, etc. are
good means but not the best to help the community move forward.
Reservations though give an opportunity to the underserved but
indirectly discourage open competition. Hence, it gives a negative
incentive to the deserving candidates. This will ultimately hinder the
growth; if not immediately affect the existing quality. Therefore, I
don’t see reservations as the eternal solution to the Muslim
community’s or of any others problem of laggardness.

Although
reservation provides one of the quickest way to address the issue but
positive measures like providing scholarships to the deserving, on
counts of both merit as well as need, likely to have stronger and more
sustainable long term impact. Another such initiative would be to set
up primary and secondary schools of high standard in under served
Muslim concentrated areas, particularly addressing children from poor
families. In other areas where a school is not needed, a special
coaching and guidance center can address the deficiency need. In such
cases, initially the success will appear thin but there needs to be
determined and persistent effort.First of all, the schools or
the coaching centers need to maintain a high academic standard like
those of ICSE or CBSE schools. It is quite obvious that initially, in
an underserved community, the parents might not be very much
enthusiastic about their children’s education. For them helping in the
family affairs or contributing to the narrow supply of income might
seem more important. We have to create an environment as to how
parents, even though they might be illiterate, develop a positive
attitude towards education and ultimately own the responsibility to
educate their children.

Doing
this is difficult but not
impossible. We need to identify interest groups, like clubs,
association or groups of progressive minded elders or youths from the
community itself who can mobilize the community at the local level.
Muslim NGOs or any other organization interested to help the community
with a track record of transparency and efficiency can be instrumental
in such an effort. Lack of credible NGOs maybe an issue, but to start
with, on a pilot basis, identifying a few NGOs won’t be a problem. Once
a few organizations take up the initiative and come up with a viable
proposal, the government or non-government funding agencies can
evaluate the same and grant a project. For monitoring, the implementing
agency, the NGO itself will primarily be responsible. In addition, the
local interest group will provide necessary inputs in terms of
community relations, cooperation, and community mobilization. In
order to enable the children to study, the access to education must be
free or the cost of it be paid. This may come from a well designed
scholarship that takes care of the school tuition, books and stationary
and extra coaching, if required. These scholarships will do the dual
job of meeting the need as well as motivating the children and their
respective parents towards education. Such a specialized effort in
uplifting the deprived community will more effective than reservations
in the sense that it will provide children with the confidence and
competence required to meet the actual challenge rather that facing a
subsided one. Competent and able children will give rise to a strong
community and strong communities will build a stronger nation. We need
to advocate for a uniformly strong and competent nation, not a
uniformly reserved and weaker nation!

Our
Journey to the Day of Resurrection, Part-1

...
... Gheyas S Mahfoz Hashmi, Jeddah
<hgheyas@savola.com>

I have finished last year in 2010 writing “Prayers (Nimaz) in Islam” in
nine parts. I have taken today the above topic which will Insha Allah
continue and conclude in few parts as well.

The fastness of the present time journey by air is one of the great
achievements in the science and technology fields. Long distance is
covered in minutes. Hence, more than 30,00,000 people travel in a day
by air itself.

I am here not going to discuss air travel but certainly a travel
(ever-fastest) which a man covers within no time and which is MUST for
every body. It is the journey to the day of resurrection transiting in
Aalam-e-Barzakh. Allah says in Quran “But Allah reprieveth no
soul when its term cometh, and Allah is Aware of what ye do.”(63 /11).
Prior to travel in this world all the necessary information about the
means of travel, destination information like weather and climate of
the place, housing and eating arrangements at destination, etc. are
collected and accordingly arranged to make the journey comfortable and
the mission thereof successful. Have we ever though of same
preparations for our inevitable journey? We can certainly say “No” or
Yes but very scanty. Every body will be in agreement with me that if no
planning is made for journey (worldly or hereafter) the journey will be
futile and tiresome.
I would like to share with you here all the necessary information about
our inescapable journey to the final destination Jannat (Heaven), i.e.
information about places that we have to cross in between to reach the
final destination.
A man has 2 deaths and 2 lives. Allah say “How disbelieve you in Allah
when you were dead and He gave life to you! Then He will give you
death, then life again, and then to Him you will return.”(2/28). Hence,
the man has 3 situations; this World which is the first situation
starts from life, Aalam-e-Barzakh which is the second situation starts
from death and Aakhirat which is the 3rd & last situation
starts from resurrection from the graveyard (a part of
Aalam-e-Barzakh). All these 3 situations are related to soil, i.e. man
was created with the soil, will be dropped in the soil and will be
resurrected from the soil. Allah says, “Thereof We created you, and
thereunto We return you, and thence We bring you forth a second
time”. (20/44).
The divine statement that says “when you were dead He gave you life”
depicts that the man was having a kind of life before the worldly life.
They were not nothing. This Quraic verse gives us the knowledge of Ahad
Azli (eternal reign). So, Allah says in Quran, “And (remember) when
your Lord brought forth from the Children of Adam, from their reins,
their seed, and made them testify of themselves, (saying): Am I not
your Lord? They said: Yea, verily. We testify. (That was) lest you
should say at the Day of Resurrection: Lo! of this we were unaware
(7/172).
Prior to sending to this world all children of Adam were collected and
given the power of hearing and speaking and accordingly a Covenant from
them was taken at a place known as Nouman (Arafat) as narrated in
Musnad Ahmad, Nisai and Hakim at the authority of Ibn Abbas (r) (Ma’rif
Quran quoting Tafseer Qurtubi).
This Covenant will be presented in Qiyamat as ratification in order to
establish the facts from which none will be escapable.
According to Syed Abul A'ala Maududi this Convenant is existed in the
subconscious of the human being which can be recalled with some
external appeal to cause them to appear and take practical shape.